


The Value of Sin

by Phoebeus



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Established Relationship, Ghosts, Jou is basically here to fret, M/M, Major Character Injury, Sad Ending, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-10-25 13:45:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10765455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoebeus/pseuds/Phoebeus
Summary: Yuugi, Katsuya, and Ryou go to a long abandoned family cabin to fulfill a grandfather’s final wish… But why are they there? What is so important about this strange, eerie house? …and what will be the cost of finding out?





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I think this is my very first proper AU! Go figure!! 
> 
> Anyways, this will be a short series- I am taking a break from my other works to write this as a gift for my followers on tumblr. [YGOSpamProduction](http://ygospamproduction.tumblr.com) hit 1,000 followers this weekend, and as a thank you, I promised to write a story for the winning prompt in a poll! 
> 
> This is the result- Hope everyone likes it!
> 
> Opening Music: [Hide & Seek](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlapKWfwv3A) by Amber Run.

“What the hell…”

“When did your grandfather get this place, Yuugi-kun?” Bakura Ryou asked as he looked up at the cabin, staring until the snow burned in his eyes and he had to blink through the blur.

“Who knows,” Mutou Yuugi shrugged against the thick layers of coat and sweater and bag straps as he unlocked the front door, pushing against the scream of the hinge to hold it open for his two friends. “It’s been in the family since I can remember.”

“But you never come here, right? So why has he never sold it or rented it out?” Jounouchi Katsuya demanded, rushing ahead to drop his bags in the entry way before biting his gloves off and blowing on his fingers. The walk had been beyond cold, a straight shot from the bus with no shelter, and the whole way uphill, forcing the three forward at a painfully slow pace.

Slow, for Yuugi’s sake.

And Yuugi, he didn’t answer for some moments, letting Ryou shuffle passed him with calmer steps and alert eyes before finally shutting the door against the wind and ice… dropping his hand and moving for the wall switch without ever making eye contact with either of them.

“Because of the memories, I suppose. After all, _Otou-san_ …”

The overhead light burst to life, illuminating the grim expressions on Katsuya and Ryou’s faces.

Mutou Renju… They knew about him, of course. They knew, he was the one who had died there.

The one who had been killed.

The one who had been found lying dead in the mountain snow, mouth hanging open, face stained by two, thin lines of red… from where his eyes had burst like grapes to bleed out and freeze on his cheeks.

The papers were always so _generous_ with those details.

“Sorry, Yuugi,” Katsuya mumbled, knocking snow off of his shoes with a tap of his toe. “That was a stupid question.”

Yuugi didn’t answer. He just stared at the switch- at things only he could see, until finally he tugged his bag higher up his back, and limped further into the room. “Come on, we should get the food into the fridge.”

“Why bother?” Katsuya countered, rubbing his arms as he trailed after him, clearly striving to mirror his best friend’s efforts to dodge heavy subjects. “This place is as cold as a freezer! …No offence.”

“None taken. It can get pretty drafty in here.”

“But I assume there’s central heating?” Ryou asked mildly, pale eyes trailing over the shadowed bends of the main room as Yuugi and Katsuya made for the kitchen. The dim illumination of the spare window turned each knick-knack and picture on the wall into a macabre twist of itself, flickering and contorting before Ryou's eyes as the snow played with the moonlight. “We can kick it on soon, right?”

“Yup! It’s just turned off since the house was empty,” Yuugi answered from one room over, barely having to raise his voice in the small space. “We can start it up in a minute!”

“Thank you!” Ryou called, dropping his bag onto the western-style table that took up the majority of the room before continuing to look around. There was only one other doorway in the space, and it led to what looked like a sitting area, and a restroom beyond- but there was also a ladder just to his left. Presumably it led to a loft sleeping area, where they could keep most of their things. But for the time being, the white-haired boy settled for inspecting the room he was in. The nearby shelf, the glass cabinets beneath it, and all of the strange little things kept there.

A single look was all he needed to confirm that, yes, he was in the abode of one Mutou Sugoroku. For most of the things were games of some sort. Some Ryou didn’t even recognize, but it was easy enough to spot an old, peeling Rubik’s Cube, a mancala board without the stones, and discs that were either broken tops, or pieces for some board game.

Perhaps they were all items the old man couldn’t sell in his store, but couldn’t bring himself to throw away.

Ryou was running his hand through a bowl of mix-matched metal dice, wondering if Yuugi might be willing to part with some of them, when he heard it.

A ringing.

Ryou pressed his ear against his head, trying to blot it out because it really sounded like it was just his own ears ringing.

But it didn’t fade, it- it just seemed to slide behind him, to the back of his skull, and it _actually_ behind him?

He turned, flicked his eyes over the rest of the room, but no. Even as he looked, he registered that the sound had swerved with him, confirming that it was in his own head.

So he turned back, planning to ignore it until it passed- when what he had actually _seen_ registered, and he jerked back around.

…Nothing. Nothing but the ladder and the next room over, the little Japanese sitting table at its center the only thing present even capable of casting a shadow.

…But- but, Ryou could have sworn that- that there had been- someone _there_ , just behind the dividing curtain-

A shaded figure, with eyes that burnt gold- That stared right at _him_.

He stared back at the nothing and the eyes, breath in his throat until he was choking, _waiting_ … until the stillness of a reality that would not right itself finally broke him, and he burst forward _into_  that room, and groped for the light switch.

The sitting room burst into proper color and Ryou never even blinked- stared at that shadow with every step and every breath.

And yet, somehow, when the overhead light fizzled on… there was no one there.

Ryou was alone.

“Alright, we got the heat going and some tea boiling, so- Ryou? _Ryou_ -”

He jerked at the touch on his arm, reached up to clutch himself protectively as he turned and- and found Katsuya there, frowning at him. “…You alright?”

“…Yes.” Ryou blinked through his daze, forced a reassuring smile as Yuugi trailed out of the kitchen with his own questioning stare. “Sorry, just got lost in thought for a while there.” And he could see at a glance that neither bought it, as Katsuya’s frown deepened and Yuugi’s eyes flickered between them.

So Ryou turned his eyes on the doorway beyond them. “Do we have a rice cooker here?”

“-Yes,” Yuugi admitted, stepping back as Ryou moved to enter the kitchen. “It’s over there by the stove.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get it plugged in and pop in the rice we brought!” Ryou proclaimed, a bright cheer in his voice and thoughts churning through his mind.

He couldn’t tell them.

He couldn’t tell them about the shadow that had been there, then not.

He couldn’t tell them about the golden eyes that bore through his skull and his mind, even then.

…He couldn’t explain how he had seen those eyes before…

……………………………………………………………………

“ _Itadakimasu_!” Katsuya cried as he dove into his still steaming plate, quickly falling into an appreciative moan as it hit his tongue. “Aaaa, this is the best!”

“I’m glad you like it so much,” Ryou answered, smiling as he sat down with his own food- to a light chuckle from Yuugi.

“You say that like you don’t already know curry’s his favorite- like you didn’t pick it out special for that.”

“-Really?” Katsuya turned to the white-haired boy, eyes wide with surprise and, delight.

The smallest of blushes showed on Ryou’s pale skin, but he just shrugged and laughed good-naturedly. “Well, I wanted to thank you somehow for going along with this- I know you don’t like going places with scary stories associated with them, but you came along anyways.”

“ _Pshh_ -” Katsuya sniffed, scratching his chin self-consciously. “I don’t have an issue with that!”

But still, there was a fond awkwardness floating between the two that Yuugi could only smile at, and pretend not to notice as they all ate.

They could get so self-conscious sometimes. You would never have thought the two had been dating for half of a year, if you saw them. But that was just how they were- how they had always been, ever since first year, when Katsuya came over to Yuugi’s dorm one day, and found his roommate Ryou there, instead.

When Yuugi made it back that night from his surprise shift at the Kame Shop, he had found Ryou fondly teasing Katsuya over a horror movie, patting his head as the blond clung to his arm.

Two years later, and they were the same as always… and then some.

But Yuugi still felt the need, once some time passed, to speak up- draw their attention to him, and his own smile. “I should be the one thanking both of you. I mean, you only gave up your winter break for this because of me.”

“…Do you think we would ever leave you to come out here _alone_ , just days after-” Katsuya countered with a vague wave, grimacing a bit- and doing a double take when Ryou calmly stated what he looked to avoid.

“After your grandfather passed away?”

Katsuya turned to glower at him with a hiss of his name, but Yuugi just nodded in answer, expression schooled into something simply, weary, as he answered. “No, but still, coming all the way to an isolated mountain in Hokkaido, in the middle of winter- it's a lot to ask of you.”

“Yeah well, that was what _Jii-chan_ asked you to do, right?” Katsuya countered, earning a slow nod as all three fell back into musing on that memory.

It had been weird when Mutou Sugoroku requested it, there in the hospital, an hour before that final heart attack took him- and it had made no more sense to Yuugi later, when he repeated it to his friends after the funeral.

_Please, Yuugi. You have to go to the cabin. It can’t- It has to be you, no one else- no one else can go there before you do, **please** -_

He had never explained himself.

He hadn’t had the chance.

“That was strange,” Ryou acknowledged, not for the first time, but with little real concern. Honestly, he looked vaguely excited as he smiled between them. “But how could you refuse him, if that’s what he wanted? And you know we wouldn’t leave you to come here alone- _especially_ with the stories about this mountain.”

“You mean to protect me from it, or to poke around and see if you can’t find your ghost?” Yuugi countered with a good-natured prod.

It was an old joke. Ryou had told him the day they met that he studied art, but his true passion was ghost stories- creepy tales, both fictional and debatably real. It was an interest going back as far as the man could remember, borne from strange dreams where a strange, dark creature would speak to him- call out to him.

Ryou always felt that it must be some spirit, trying to find him for some reason. So, he had spent much of his life trying to find it, in return.

But, where Ryou would usually smile at the mention, the reminder that Yuugi accepted his belief… his expression hollowed out.

He stared at Yuugi without so much as breathing, like- like he had said something.

Something wrong.

“…Ryou?” Katsuya finally broke the silence, reaching up to grab the boy’s shoulder and shake it a bit, making him blink back into awareness. “What gives?”

“Sorry,” Ryou breathed, rubbing over his eyes with a hand as if to clear them of some fog- or, perhaps, hide them from the two staring at him. “I must just be tired.”

“…It was a long walk,” Yuugi acknowledged, even as the tension refused to leave his back. “It’s no wonder if it wore you out.”

“-Aren’t you the one who should be feeling that most, Yuugi?” Katsuya suddenly thought to ask, eyes narrowing with a frowning concern so familiar, Yuugi had to smile a bit.

“I’m _fine_ ,” he insisted as he stood with his cleaned off plate, pain lacing up his left leg as if in answer to Katsuya’s indirect mention. Yuugi refused to let it taint his grin, though, and walked as smoothly as he could around the table and his two friends. “I took some pain killers before we left, and before dinner. The only thing I need is rest- just like Bakura-kun.”

“…Does that mean you want to go to bed? So soon?” Ryou asked, prompting both of the other men to relax when he looked up with his usual, easy smile. “We just started our vacation, after all, and finally have a chance to relax! Shouldn’t we play a game before bed, or at least have a poke around this place and see what’s-”

Yuugi dropped his plate, and all three jerked around as a roaring wave of a crash screamed from the kitchen-

Just before the lights went out.

“What the shit?!” Katsuya cried, jumping up from his chair- only to stumble and reach out when he hit Yuugi and nearly knocked him over. “S-sorry man, what-”

“The generator must have run out of fuel,” Yuugi breathed, grinning up through the pain shooting up his leg- even as Katsuya definitely couldn’t see him. “I was, afraid of that- everything was running, so I just assumed I didn’t need to refill it. Sorry.”

“That’s nothing we can’t fix, as long as we have refills,” Ryou assured, calm as ever as he himself stood up, a mere shadow turning in the dark before them. “But, what was that sound?”

None of them knew, of course, and all they could do was stumble their way to their bags, get out their flashlights, and investigate.

“ _What the shit_ …” Katsuya repeated, barely breathing the words aloud as he trailed after the other two into the tiny kitchen.

Everything… every pot and pan and skillet that had been hanging on the wire rack over the stove, had fallen over to the floor.   

“-Did the rack come loose?” Yuugi asked, watching as Ryou edged his way over to point his light at the piece mounted to the wall.

“…no, it still looks secure. Maybe, the wall shook somehow?”

“I dunno,” Katsuya cut in, voice clipped with clear tension. “But if Yuugi’s right and it’s the generator, we should get that running again and get some light in here- where is it again?”

“On the covered back porch,” Yuugi answered, stepping back as Ryou retraced his steps and followed Katsuya out of the room.

“I’ll hold the light while you look at the thing, Katsuya.”

“Thanks. You hang tight in here, Yuugi!”

“Will do!” Yuugi called after them, setting his flashlight on the counter to shine over the space before, slowly, _carefully_ , crouching down to pick up the pans.

 _“_ What was that?” he mused to himself as he pushed one after another up onto the stove, falling into an old habit of talking to himself without even really thinking about it. “The snow’s really coming down now, but the building wasn’t shaking… was the rack just nailed on at a bad angle, so that it was likely to collapse? I had a closet beam like that once, would just drop all of my clothes down in the middle of the night sometimes, scare me to death. It’s weird it stayed up all of this time, though, and fell the very night we came here… maybe the cleaner I called in last week did something?”

He _had_ been wondering about the woman, after all. He had never met her, just hired her over the phone to come in and spruce up, so his friends wouldn’t have to stay in a decade’s worth of dust.

…But when he tried to call her days ago to confirm she had actually cleaned the house, she never reached back out to him.

Yuugi had suspected he had been swindled, right up until he walked in that evening, to find everything spotless.

Who knew…

“She sounded nice, at least,” he mused to himself quietly, running his finger inside of a pot to find that, yup, no dust in it. “Pretty young, too- Probably some girl trying to pay for tuition, or maybe travel fees to move somewhere… Or maybe she was just going to go on a trip? ………… _Yes_ , that was it…… She was going on a trip… with her lover… using funds from her own job… to hide it from her husband…”

Yuugi, stalled, the pot still raised in his hands as he registered-

He had heard that.

He had _said that_.

But, he _hadn’t_! It hadn’t even sounded like him!

But… somewhere along the line, his words had come out in a voice he didn’t know.

He _hadn’t said that_ , but… he had, felt… his mouth… moving…

Yuugi swallowed, slowly lowered the pot to the ground with a shaking hand, until it touched the tile… and he was free to put his weight on both hands to look around.

There was no one there. Even in the darkness, he could see that he was still alone.

No one and nothing there to answer him, save the hiss of the snow outside.

…But, as he turned back, and the light caught on the black surface of the oven glass-

Something glinted red.

“What-” he started, only for his jaw to twist, tug painfully wide and clip shut again.

Yuugi slapped a hand to his chin, holding it shut, but there was nothing for it. His own muscles played against him, as he stared dazed- Into a mirror he could not see properly, there in the dark-

It was nothing but his own outline, a break in the shadows… but it mumbled back at him, with his own mouth.

“She called him… _while_ she cleaned this house… spoke so callously about tricking the man she had never loved… but promised herself to… I would have taken her right then… but she hadn’t finished the kitchen, yet.”

 _What_ , Yuugi thought- in his head. The only place he had any real control left. He couldn’t even cry, or shake in fear, even though he _would have, surely_.

But something else had his body.

It dropped the hand from his face, pushed the pans out of the way, and leaned forward with slow, easy, natural movements that made Yuugi want to scream, until he was all but pressing his nose against the oven glass.

From that close, the light catching in the glass just right, Yuugi could see- could see his face.

The flat, probing light in his narrowed, blood red eyes.

“Is it you? …Are you the one?”

He didn’t know… didn’t know what it- it meant! _It- what was it_ -

The lights flared to life around him, and Yuugi gasped, jerking away from the glass until his head hit the counter behind him.

He- it, _it_ -

It was… just him… just him, gasping, and staring back at himself, fear shining in his purple eyes as, as he searched.

But there was nothing to be found. There wasn’t even anywhere to _look_ , it- it had been- _in_ him-

“Geez, that was weird… Hey, Yuugi! The gas was still half-full, the power had just been turned off! No idea how, it’s a switch. Do you think there could actually be someone up here that would play a tr… Yuugi?” Katsuya stalled in the kitchen doorway and blinked at the sight of the half-cleaned up floor and his friend, sitting on the tiles with his back against a counter… staring at the stove. “… _Hey_.”

Yuugi, gradually turned to his friend, every shift slow, and distracted… tension screaming off of him as they locked eyes.

He opened his mouth, as though to say something- but then thought better of it, dropping his gaze to the floor.

Katsuya moved to speak- to insist, interrogate. But suddenly Ryou’s voice was at his back.

“I got the pieces of the plate in the trash, just- Yuugi-kun! Are you alright? Let me help you up!”

“T-thanks, Bakura-kun,” Yuugi mumbled, letting his roommate hoist him to his feet and guide him out of the kitchen without ever meeting their eyes, simply nodding along to Ryou’s concern.

“Did you fall while we were gone? You shouldn’t have tried to clean on your own in the dark, what did you-”

Katsuya watched them go, then turned his frown and tense eyes on the kitchen again, the space now emptied.

Still.

Benign.

Silent- just like Yuugi.

…He crouched down, picked up the rest of the pans, set them on the counter, and left, turning out the lights as he went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Closing Music: [Theme from The Grudge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuDtoGRzYE4&index=21&list=PL5n4nHJVIy2Z9QQbRS5w7jffBZRsyUwTq)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thank you to [KatNocta](http://archiveofourown.org/users/KatNocta/pseuds/KatNocta) for editing this chapter for me! It was a huge help.
> 
> Also, I'm going to start trying to make ost music a thing with my stories. I do it personally anyways, so why not share music with the readers, too, since ao3 is awesome and allows for that? The Value of Sin is the only one with it consistently so far, but I'll be backtracking and adding to other stories as I release new chapters.
> 
> Opening Music: [Fear the Fever](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VDxrCatH4UI) by Digital Daggers

“What’s with you two?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you’re both acting weird.”

“I guessed that much,” Ryou countered with a smile, which he never lifted from the cards in his hand. “But I still don’t know what you mean by that.”

“I _mean_ that… _Ryou_ ,” Katsuya emphasized, nerves and concern meshing together unpleasantly in the form of frustration when his boyfriend _still_ wouldn’t meet his eyes, much less offer anything beyond that vapid smile. He was holding him at arm’s length, and Katsuya _knew_ it. Knew Ryou probably knew it, but still… the white-haired man insisted on shaking his head without looking up.

“Just a second, I think I finally decided… Yes.” Putting down a number of his other cards, Ryou turned over two to show his roommate and boyfriend. “I have a brick and a lumber, either of you want them for a couple of ore?”

“What? It- _no_ ,” Katsuya huffed, irked on a personal _and_ competitive level. But before he could steer the conversation back to his point, Ryou focused on the third player sitting at the table.

“And what about you, Yuugi-kun? …Yuugi-kun?”

Yuugi… didn’t look up. He just kept staring at his own cards, eyes dark with distraction, flickering the subtlest bit with the weight of the thoughts bouncing around his head.

He only stirred when Ryou shook his shoulder. “W-what?” Yuugi blinked the stars from his eyes as his friend repeated himself.

“A brick and a lumber for two ores, would you like to trade?”

“O-oh… Sure.”

“W-wha-” Katsuya gawked as cards traded hands, recovering too late to do anything but make his best friend jerk as he yelled. “Yuugi! Don’t you realize he’s going to win?!”

“…Huh? How do you-” Yuugi started, only to stare blank-faced as Ryou picked his other cards and dropped two grains and three ores in the ‘bank’ pile in exchange for a city marker- and swapped it with one of his settlements.

“And that’s another victory point, which brings me to ten, and that makes it my game! Haha, I didn’t think that would actually work.”

“ _Aaaah_ -” Katsuya groaned, dropping his cards onto the Catan board to rub a palm over his face. “I was just one sheep away from finishing my last settlement and point!”

“Sorry, Jounouchi-kun…” Yuugi mumbled, a flush rising up his cheeks. Even if he was playing against them _both_ , he couldn’t deny the shame of walking right into that.

Why would Ryou be going for so many ores, if he wasn’t about to build a city?

“Haha, it’s alright, Yuugi-kun,” Ryou tried to assure, but Katsuya cut in with a shake of a head and a heavy frown.

“No, it isn’t… I mean, losing a game’s fine and all, but this isn’t like you, Yuugi. This is exactly what I was talking about! Neither of you are paying attention tonight!”

“Excuse me, but I think one of us just won this game. And both of you are good enough players that I don’t think I could do that if I wasn’t paying attention.”

“I _know_ that, Ryou,” Katsuya sighed, scratching an impatient hand through his hair. “But even if Yuugi’s the one staring off into space, you’re just as bad, and I want to know what’s eating at both of you.”

Ryou turned to Yuugi, the confusion on his face painting him soundly baffled, but the shortest of the three just dropped his eyes to his hands, still clutching his Catan resource cards.

And Katsuya just looked on, his frown growing deeper by the second.

Silence filled the little sitting room… until, finally, something broke it.

All three boys jerked back at the deafening thud from the other room.

“What the hell?!” Katsuya cursed, frustration lining his shock as he stood up, fists clenched tight… only to slowly loosen as he easily found the source of the sound. “How… how did-”

“That’s not good,” Ryou observed, remaining sitting as Yuugi struggled to his feet to follow Katsuya into the main room, to stare side-by-side with him at the fallen loft ladder.

“... _Sheesh_ , Yuugi. Shouldn’t a main house ladder like that be nailed down or something?”

“I thought it was…” Yuugi breathed, turning to stare up at the second floor as Katsuya gasped and heaved with the effort to pick the thing up.

“ _Whelp_ , if we can find a tool box, I’ll make sure it is _now_ \- geez, Ryou? Can you give me a hand, here?”

“Certainly.” The white-haired man was there in a moment, aiming the ladder at the loft opening as Katsuya supported its weight… and Yuugi looked awkwardly on, rolling on his heels.

“I’m... going to take a bath. Sorry about this, guys.”

“Yeah, no problem, Yuu- _Hey wait_!” Katsuya belatedly protested, turning his head just in time to see Yuugi disappear through the sitting room into the bathroom. “He never even answered me!”

“It didn’t look like he was going to, anyways,” Ryou pointed out, his would-be reassurance earning a flat look from the blond supporting the ladder.

“You don’t have much room to talk, you know.”

“Oh, are you going to keep trying to interrogate me? Pity,” Ryou hummed, letting go as the top of the ladder hit the upper landing and settled back into place. “I was hoping we could rush the repair and check out that loft up there.”

Katsuya... slowly lowered his gaze, half-hopeful and half-wary as he searched for some confirmation of Ryou’s meaning.

His boyfriend just kept smiling at him in that same, exact manner though… and Katsuya broke the silence with a defeated sigh.

“You play dirty, _Bakura_.”

Ryou just smiled.

……………………………………………………………………

He didn’t know what to tell them.

Yuugi stared into the handshower like it might give him some long elusive, missed answer… then finally dropped the shut-off spout to sigh and run harried hands through his hair.

He just couldn’t do it. How the _hell_ was he supposed to tell his friends what he had seen?!

Because, even if he told the truth… even if Yuugi admitted that he himself wasn’t sure if it was real, or if he was just losing it under the pressure of old ghosts and fresh grief, he _was_ certain of his friends. Katsuya would be scared out of his skin, and Bakura… Well, Bakura would probably just be fascinated, if he were at all himself. Because Katsuya was right- He _had_ been acting weird, ever since they made it to the cabin… but that was really the least of Yuugi’s worries. He was caught on the fact that he had finally cracked… or they were in a house with something _dark_ , that attacked maids, and between the bus schedule and the snow, they were stuck there until morning- _if_ not longer, by the look of that storm.

How could he tell his friends, and make them live with the same helpless anxiety?

“-How do you play that game?”

He sucked in a breath, one hand shooting up to hover over his mouth.

He had said that, but _again_... He hadn’t.

Yuugi tossed the shower spout to the tiles and, with nowhere else to turn, or run, he rushed to the sink.

Dark red eyes met… _‘his’_ as he looked into mirror.

...Nothing happened. Yuugi stood there, stiff as a board, anticipating and fearing what his own hands might do or where his feet might take him, if he would have a chance to scream and warn his friends before _he_ cut them down, and… the _thing_ did nothing but stare at him, and twitch a muscle in his neck to tip the head to a curious angle.

“Are you not going to answer?”

To be honest, Yuugi didn’t even remember the question. And when the red eyes repeated it, he was no less confused. _Why_ would he care-

“Very well, then.” The invader straightened his head again, the vague hint of interest in his eyes dying away as he _stared_ , the same way he had in the oven, just before the lights came on. “Did Sugoroku send you?”

“ _What_ -” Yuugi started without thinking, discovering only by his success that his jaw would work for _him_ , too- his own voice coming out of the same mouth within an instant. “How do you know my grandpa?”

“He brought me here,” the voice answered, understanding and confusion sliding in pieces through his gaze- while unseen, shock ran through Yuugi’s. “To this house, years ago.”

“W- _why_ \- and moreover _how_ -” He was a _thing_ in Yuugi’s skin, a… what he had to think was a _ghost_ , sliding in and out of the living. How could his grandpa have brought something like that anywhere?!

… And… _why_ …

“I saved his life,” was the answer given, a twitch running through Yuugi’s shoulders until he shrugged for the mirror- only to lean forward and rest his elbows on the sink, the better to stare directly into those eyes.

Yuugi would have jerked back, if he had the choice.

“He poked in places he shouldn’t have, and I got him out of his own mess… and in return, he promised to help me.” The eyes shifted away, across the room in a lazy sort of inspection that Yuugi could not see- once he wasn’t facing the mirror. He was the one looking around, after all. “He brought me here, to this house, so that he could come to me regularly. At least once a year.”

 _-His fishing trips_? Yuugi thought, but did not say. He just listened as the ghost turned his head to face the mirror again… to face _him_ again.

Him and his suddenly narrowed, glinting eyes.

“It was never enough… but it was more than what I had had in some time. My first rest was _built_ to draw in the greedy, the wicked and the blasphemous, all looking for gold and riches… but it meant little once the world forgot my name, and where I lay. Even thieves will not break into a treasury they do not know exists.”

Yuugi, had no idea what the hell he was talking about.

But he could feel it, a dread running up the back of his legs. A certainty that he might yet understand, if he listened… that he _really, really_ didn’t want to know.

But his mouth still wouldn’t open- save for the ghost.

“So imagine my shock, when _he_ came in with the rare thief,” the voice went on, all low, lulling poisonous tones. “Oh, Sugoroku had his own darkness sticking to him - pride, arrogance, contempt - but most do, and his were the sins of humanity… his _company reeked_ , though, so I took them quick enough.”

“W-what-?” Yuugi tried to interrupt, but his words were overridden by that other voice spilling out of his throat at the same time.

“They tried to kill him first, though, so I looked at him… and saw an opportunity… I told him- I would give him life, and wealth as well, if he would help me. If he would keep me safe, but bring me somewhere I could seek out more darkness… more sacrifices.”

The final word jerked through Yuugi, and he tried to pull away- but he got no farther than an inch before the ghost _slammed him back_ , plastered his stomach against the counter edge in his bid to _stare_ at him.

He let him speak, at least. “W-what do you mean, _sacrifices_?”

“Sinners,” the _thing_ breathed, never blinking, never letting Yuugi look away from him and the dark glint in his eye. “Sinners, and their sins… every cruel, heartless thing that a person does to blacken their own heart… I _need_ that darkness. I need those black hearts… and for years I have lost count of, Sugoroku has helped me do it. Brought the worst he could find to my door… and walked away, never to look back.”

 _No_ , Yuugi wanted to scream. His grandfather- that kindly, laughing man who practically raised him?

He would _never do such a thing_! Never leave people to, to-

He didn’t even really know what this demon did to them!

“But he hasn’t come this year,” the ghost breathed, the faintest hint of emotion - _Concern? Worry? Fear?_ \- rolling across a brow and a mouth Yuugi could _feel_ shift. “I have had to rely on sheer luck, and selfish little maids, and that is not near enough... where is he?”

“He’s dead.” Yuugi, barely whispered it, terror numbing the grief that usually would have risen up from his gut with the words. “He got sick, and… but he would- he would never _do this_.”

“He understood. He knew why it was necessary,” the thing countered, his expression emptying out oddly. Perhaps it was just the prolonged proximity they had had through the mirror, but Yuugi could see a difference. There was something unique about it, the flatness of the ghost’s expression now. It looked more like a cover, than true disinterest. “But if he is dead… You say you are his blood?”

The sink counter cut uncomfortably into Yuugi’s gut as he bent forward, falling nearly to his elbows at the ghost’s will so that the thing beyond the mirror and within him could look him, near ‘nose-to-nose’ with that same searching, invasively curious look in his eyes Yuugi had seen in the oven.

“He was getting old, I knew he would have to find a replacement somehow, at some point…” the thing whispered, Yuugi’s breath fogging the glass. “He must have sent _you_.”

Yuugi jerked back, glared blindly through sudden tears at his own reflected, naked form. “ _He would never do that_!!”

“Yuugi?!”

The young man jerked, turned to the door as someone knocked.

“You alright in there?! What the hell-”

“-It'/ fine!” Yuugi called, just as he heard the doorknob shaking. He swallowed, forced back the bile that had risen in his throat to say- “I just, saw a spider! It freaked me out!”

“... _Jeez_ , man,” Katsuya huffed, just as the door went still. “Don’t scare us like that!”

“Right!” Yuugi called, only to remember himself and turn, back to the mirror.

His eyes were his own again when he looked, and though he went still, waited a breath for something to control him again, or speak, nothing happened…

But still…

He rubbed his own arms against the cold, staring at mirror as he mumbled it again. “Right…”

……………………………………………………………………

“Oh my go- guys! The storm’s stopped!!”

“Really?” Ryou leaned back from the sitting room table to get a look out of the window as his boyfriend held the curtain open. “Well, I’ll be.”

“ _Pffft_ , what sort of reaction is that?! Come on!” Katsuya complained good-naturedly, dropping the curtain as he came over to grin at the two. “We’ve been cooped up in this place for days, aren’t you tired of it?!”

 _Tired_ wasn’t exactly the word Yuugi would use, but he certainly didn’t counter that. He just finished moving his rook and turned to grin up at the excited blond. “It has been a long three days, huh?”

“Pssh, tell me about it. No offense, this place is great, but I’m starting to miss civilization- and the chance to actually _walk around_ more than a ten foot room.”

“-On that,” Yuugi started, dropping his gaze to the chess board to better cover the lie in his casual tone. “I think we’ve pretty much met _Jii-chan_ ’s wish by now, whatever his reasons were. If you want… would you like to go back today? We should be able to get out of here before another storm sets in.”

“...Seriously?” The shock behind the answer prompted Yuugi to look up, but before Katsuya’s surprise could turn to full relief, Ryou cut in.

“But, we’d probably have a devil of a time getting back into the dorms in the middle of the break,” he pointed out, frowning- even as he took one of Yuugi’s black pawns. “And I doubt there’s anyone around in administration we can talk to- Not this close to New Year.”

“ _Still_ -” Katsuya started, only to flounder as he struggled to find a comeback.

He wasn’t going to suggest they stay at _his_ place, after all.

The failure of an answer clearly irked him, though, and before he could fall into full frustration, Ryou stood up.

“Why don’t we just go for a walk, Katsuya? I saw a hiking trail when we arrived, and you can stretch your legs- and when we come back, we can all have lunch and talk about it some more. Maybe we’ll have thought of something else by then.”

“Well, _yeah_ , that sounds nice, but…” Katsuya trailed off, skirting a worried look Yuugi’s way.

It was easy enough to see his concern, though, and Yuugi just grinned- even as his back prickled with nerves. “It’s fine, Jounouchi-kun. I’ve got the teevee and some cards to keep me busy, and I can start lunch.”

“Yeah, but…” Katsuya scratched his ear in that uncertain way that made Ryou and Yuugi both smile fondly, the latter shaking his head and motioning to the door.

“Go ahead, go explore the mountain and come back and tell me about it- and get some kisses out of your system while you’re out there. It’ll help keep you warm.”

Katsuya sputtered right out of his uncertainty, face going pink as he tossed Yuugi a sour look.

He didn’t counter or protest, though, just harrumphed and made for the closet- missing it when Ryou shot Yuugi a thumbs up and mouthed a grinning _thank you_ behind his back.

Yuugi just grinned right back, tossing the two a wave as they finished bundling up and went out the front door, throwing casual farewells over their shoulders.

The instant the door closed, Yuugi dropped his hand, and his smile.

...He had played it too safe.

He had been fighting the urge to tell the two what happened for _days_ , and thought- _if he could just get them out of the house, and_ then _explain_ -

But, not yet, it seemed… and now he was alone.

Violet eyes flicked across the room, searching for… well, nothing he could see. It wasn’t _out there_ , after all. It was _in him_.

And when his hand rose without him willing it mere seconds after the door closed, he wondered if it had ever even left.

“That was a decent try,” his mouth said, as his left hand moved to reset the chessboard to its starting point. “But it’s probably for the best that your friend stopped you. It wouldn’t have worked, even if they agreed-”

“I’m not going to help you,” Yuugi cut in, slapping down the words like a card he had long ached to play- which was true. He had been waiting for a chance to say it since that first night, as he started up at the rafters in the loft, listening to Katsuya and Ryou breathing beside him. He hadn’t made any sense of what was happening, or how his grandfather was involved, but he did know one thing at least: He was _not going to help this thing_.

But the spirit said nothing more than “Oh?” in answer, and Yuugi _would_ have glowered, had he use of his mouth. But the ghost was busy with it, going on as he fiddled with the black king. “That is too bad… I don’t think you’ll like the consequences of that.”

“And how would you like it if I just left?” He could do it, too. He had the keys. He could pack up their bags, shut the house down, lock it up, go out and meet the boys on the path, and tell them they were leaving _now_. They would fight and question and never let him live down such weird behavior, but he could _do it_. They wouldn’t insist on staying, not if he was vehement about it.

...But the ghost didn’t answer. Not for a few seconds, then a full minute, then two…

“Fine,” Yuugi snapped, moving to rise and do just that- but his legs wouldn’t move.

They stayed spread out beneath the table, limp and relaxed, and not at all numb. He could even feel the usual pressure in his left knee… but nothing.

...Then, they did move.

Yuugi stood, moved casually across the sitting room, through the main space, and back into the kitchen- without him ever prompting it.

The only thing that remained under his control was his heart and pulse- and they both screamed as his hands opened a drawer and pulled out a steak knife.

“You are far more useful to me alive than dead,” the voice said, playing with the handle and blade with loose, casual fingers- a sweat breaking out on the palms from nerves that weren’t his own. “And honestly, I would hate to have to sacrifice you… you don’t have near the darkness I would need.”

“Don’t I?” Yuugi breathed, honestly shocked that he was even allowed to _speak_. But even that grim victory shriveled up when the _thing_ tilted his head and-

It hurt.

It was like someone was drilling through his very skull, but it didn’t hurt _physically_ , it was- it was within him in some place that went much deeper than bones and blood. But whatever and wherever it was, _something_ was invading it, and-

“A touch of lust,” the voice mumbled, and Yuugi could have cried for how the sound of it _comforted him_ , it was such a needed distraction. “A dash of envy, sloth… Far, _far_ too much hatred of self. But that’s a rather grey sin, I can’t make much use of it. No, no- I’d hate to have to take your heart. You are far too good for me, ‘Yuugi’.”

 _What_ -

Yuugi couldn’t even get the word out properly, but the moment he even thought it, the ‘drill’ pulled away, and he was left dizzy and sore within himself as the ghost shook his head, dropping the knife onto the counter.

“The others aren’t much worse, either, from what I have seen. So, I will make you a deal. I will not hurt you, or your friends, as long as you do not fight me and remain in the house.”

“I have to go in two weeks,” Yuugi, astonishingly, managed to get out, the words slurred as he fought for balance within himself. “School-”

“I will not hurt you as long as you remain in the house,” the voice repeated, as if he hadn’t heard him. “And we will talk anytime you are alone… and I suggest you make that often. I will, honestly, try my best to convince you to help me… I only have so long myself, after all. But you and I _both_ want you to walk out of here, Yuugi… but I can only allow that if I know you’ll come back.”

“With people for you to kill.”

...The voice did not reply.

Yuugi shut his eyes, pained by how much _relief_ he felt that he was capable of even that, and sucked in a steadying breath. He, he couldn’t fight this thing physically, but- “And what if I convince _you_ to let me go, and to stop killing people?”

“That won’t happen.”

...Yuugi, blinked at the counter-top, the knife still glinting on its surface.

He hadn’t said that, the way Yuugi would have expected. The words were firm, with no room for a debate… but they weren’t smug, or arrogant, or even callous.

The ghost sounded… _grim_.

“But… we... I, don’t have any right to judge people, or punish them. To send them to their deaths just because they’re bad.” Yuugi would have liked to have sounded determined, just as steady as the ghost, but his argument came out stumbling, at a loss.

Still, the other person within him did not scoff, or ignore him.

No, as the ghost turned Yuugi’s back on the knife, and the kitchen, he asked, “And what about stopping them?” But before Yuugi could even think to reply, the other shot a second question at him.

“What happened to your leg?”

Yuugi… stumbled.

Internally, of course. Outwardly, the ghost guided them back into the sitting room, and took a seat in Ryou’s former spot, on the white side of the chessboard- carefully arranging Yuugi’s legs to minimize the pain that naturally shot up his back with the move.

But even that physical reminder of what the other asked didn’t break through Yuugi’s hesitance. He just… he didn’t know why, but he always felt shame at that story. Not for what he did, not at all, but… that he, hadn’t been able to do more. That he had been so powerless. He didn’t like talking about it.

But the ghost was patient. Once they were settled, he rested Yuugi’s hands on his thigh and leg and, just sat there. For all purposes, he might well have been gone, but Yuugi just knew, somehow, that he was still in there… waiting.

Finally he swallowed, and spoke.

“I was stabbed, in the leg, when I was in high school.”

“Why?” the ghost asked, taking over his mouth for a brief moment, but leaving him free to shrug his own shoulders.

“Because I wouldn’t pay him… Ushio.” The hall monitor… He had beaten Yuugi’s classmates and then demanded payment for it- _after_ beating Yuugi, too, for getting in the way.

And though Yuugi had found some surprise cash in his bag that night, that had to be from his grandfather… He had put it back. Didn’t meet the bully.

It wasn’t his place to use his family’s money to buy himself out of trouble.

But he paid for his refusal the next day, when Ushio cornered him in a closet and buried that knife in his leg.

He left him there to bleed out… and if Katsuya hadn’t suspected, _hadn’t followed,_  Yuugi probably would have died.

The real irony was it cost his family more to keep him in the hospital than it would have to pay Ushio.

“When I and my family made a complaint to the principal, Ushio claimed that I was lying- that I was covering for Jounouchi-kun, who actually stabbed me, and threatened to kill me if I didn’t blame Ushio instead,” Yuugi went on, the story trailing to a close without him - or the ghost - ever moving. He said in the exact same spot, hands resting in the same place on his legs, as he finished. “The school believed him, over Jounouchi-kun and I… said that it simply had to be the former gang member who did it, and not the honor student. So they expelled him… Jounouchi-kun.” And Yuugi finally moved, raising his arms to wrap them tight around himself, clutching the back of his ribs. “And Ushio got away with it. He didn’t chance coming near me for the rest of the year, but still… I was worried that Jounouchi-kun - and Honda-kun, his friend who Ushio also beat - would hate me for it, for helping me and what came of it… but they didn’t. Jounouchi-kun just thanked me for helping him in the first place, and stuck by me… Eventually, Honda-kun became my friend, too. And _Jii-chan_ gave Jounouchi-kun a job in our shop. He still works there… or, did.” They, still weren’t sure what they were going to do with the shop, after all…

...But the important thing right then was that ghost, and the fact that it was still not speaking.

Yuugi began to wonder if, maybe, he _had_ left at some point. The idea irked him - he had gone out of his way to share something that personal, after all! - and prompted him to prod a bit by saying, “Punishing him wouldn’t solve anything, though. Jounouchi-kun should have been let back into school, but hurting Ushio wouldn’t give me back my leg.”

“-And if he stabbed others after you? Hurt them and took their money?”

Yuugi’s mouth shut with the end of the ghost’s question… and did not open again at once.

Yuugi had no reply… he could only swallow past his own conflict.

The other within him did not take advantage, though, or drag out the point. He waited… or at least, focused elsewhere.

The ghost reached out with Yuugi’s left hand, moved a white pawn, and carefully spun the board around.

“Your move.”

Yuugi’s eyebrows quirked up, and he stared warily at the game. “...King’s Gambit?”

His lips twitched into a smile, though he himself didn’t form it. “You know it?”

“Of course, I’m more curious how _you_ know this game.” And, if it was safe to actually play a game with a ghost. “...You’re not going to steal my soul if I lose or something, are you?”

“You think you’re going to lose?” The counter was playful, teasing, but Yuugi remained tense, hands still… until a sigh broke passed his lips, and his shoulders slumped. “I promised I wouldn’t hurt you, remember?”

 _Unless I leave_ , Yuugi countered, but only in his head- and he finally reached up to move his mirroring black pawn up to the ghost’s.

His lips twitched again with a smile- an approval, apparently, for his acceptance of the ghost’s opening. And he rewarded his ‘host’ with a belated answer. “Your grandfather taught me.”

Yuugi’s eyes widened a bit… then softened, a strange mix of hurt and warmth running through him as he said, “He taught me, too.”

His head nodded- and really, it was getting to feel way too natural, someone else moving his body. But he wasn’t about to complain right then, as the ghost turned the board again and considered his options. Instead, he took the opportunity to ask-

“How much sin is too much, anyways?” His left hand stilled just over a white pawn, catching to listen as Yuugi went on. “I mean, you said _I_ have sins, too, but how do you pick when someone’s bad enough to deserve… What you think they deserve?”

“...Everyone has sin in their heart,” he breathed with that other voice, his hand finally moving to slide a second white pawn up beside the first- leaving it vulnerable to Yuugi’s own. Still King’s Gambit, then. “But in some, the light outweighs the shadows… while in others, the shadows outweigh the light.”

“But, there is still usually light, right?” Yuugi insisted, even as his hand turned the board again for his play. “I once saw Ushio help a girl with a broken leg down the stairs after some bullies stole her crutch… He is a greedy, cruel man, but he is also capable of good. And you would have sacrificed that charity with his sin, right?” He waited a moment, then when no reply came? He moved. “Bishop to c5.”

He felt his own breath catch with shock.

King’s Gambit Declined.

A hum came up from his throat, but nothing more… save a simple “If it is necessary” that Yuugi… didn’t really understand.

 _Why_ exactly was the ghost doing this?

He wanted to ask, wanted to demand the same openness from the being… but when the ghost rushed to turn the board and move his white knight into place, pushing through with his gambit, he instead found himself asking, “What is your name?”

The ghost’s movements stuttered for just a breath, and then he turned the board back. “I don’t remember.”

“...You don’t remember?”

“I have been doing this a very long time,” the voice explained, a strange mix of apology and defense running through his voice as he sat back up. “It’s your move, _Mutou Yuugi_.”

“How did you know my last- Right, _Jii-chan_.” He would like to say it was quite a gamble on his part, since Sugoroku could have been his _mom’s_ dad, but well. He was right.

And he could practically sense the impatience for him to continue, to make his move, and so Yuugi sighed, and gave in with only the weakest of counter demands.

“Fine, but will you promise to stop scaring us, if I go along with this ‘talk when we can’ thing?” He would _never_ help the ghost kill people, but if the spirit wouldn’t hurt _them_ as long as Yuugi stayed and talked to him, maybe he could figure out _something_ -

“What do you mean?”

Yuugi stalled, his hand still on the king’s pawn he had just moved. “...Scaring us? You know, knocking all of the pots over, and the ladder, and then last night when the lights went out and all of our food and dishes were on the floor?” That had been really, really eerie, too, because they hadn’t heard anything crash or shatter in the two seconds the lights were out. “And this morning, all of the windows and doors burst open at the same time, even though the wind was just coming from the east.”

There was a long pause… but Yuugi tried to dismiss it, remind himself that the ghost had already shown he could be really quiet. He just turned the board around, sat back, and waited.

“......That wasn’t me.”

Yuugi blinked, frowning at the board. “What did you say?”

“I didn’t do those things,” the ghost claimed, making his move as Yuugi’s heart lodged up in his throat. 

“Pawn to c3.”

……………………………………………………………………

“You think Yuugi’s really gonna be okay?” Katsuya sighed, rubbing his gloved hands together and blowing into them as he trailed behind Ryou up the path. “I swear, Ryou, something weird’s going on around here, and you can ignore it all you want, but I know you feel it, too.”

“Isn’t that natural, though?” his boyfriend countered, smiling at him over his shoulder a breath before leading the way further up the mountain. “A lot of people are supposed to have died up here- especially in the last few years. I think a ghost or two is perfectly natural.”

“- _Ryou_ ,” Katsuya hissed, earning nothing but a chuckle for the nerves clearly beneath his voice. “I get you take ghosts as a given, but you go looking for them all of the time! And have you ever seen anything like what’s going on in that house?!”

“Well, no- but maybe that’s just bad luck finally running out?”

“ _Bad_ luck… and if you’ve never seen anything like this, and you _do_ think it’s legit, what do you think they’re going to do, huh? Are we just gonna keep losing power and dishes, or are they gonna hurt us?”

“Of course not. Spirits are the _killed_ ,” he emphasized, giving the blond a patient, reassuring smile as he stalled his steps. “Not the killers.”

Katsuya snorted, but it was a weak gesture at best, like he couldn’t decide if he should feel comforted or weirded out… but a couple seconds of staring at his boyfriend, and he just sighed, reaching out to take his hand and tug Ryou along. “If you say so- just don’t go crying to me if we end up tossed in the basement with a raving ghost.”

“Yuugi’s cabin doesn’t have a basement, Katsuya.”

“Whatever.”

Ryou laughed, and the two went on their way… missing the partially covered lump in the snow, just to their left off of the path.

The slumped figure of a young woman, an apron tied about her waist… blood staining her face in frozen trails from her empty eye sockets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Closing Music: [Theme from Silent Hill](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVsZvxY-coc)
> 
> Visit me at [phoebedelosproduction](https://phoebedelosproduction.tumblr.com/) on tumblr for the latest updates on my writing.
> 
> The next (and likely final) chapter of this story should be expected around **June 11th**.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp, I lied. This is going to be four parts, not three. Yeah… what can I say? The Puff & Puzzle pairs decided to talk to each other longer than planned. 
> 
> That said, I’m not going to give a release date for the final chapter, because I plan to do it ASAP. I’m turning around from posting this and starting on the last chapter immediately. I want this done, darn it! So, keep an eye out for that! Fingers crossed I can get it out within the day without staying up too late to write or edit… 
> 
> Opening Chapter Music: [Half-Light](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SE1WaaNzW0) by BANNERS

  ****“You know I could just carry you.”

Yuugi stalled, his first bite of curry hovering in the air before his mouth as he looked up at his friend with flat, baffled eyes. “What?”

Katsuya frowned, shaking his head against the confusion in his own mind. “Carry you, down the mountain. It’s not that far to the bus stop, after all, and I could get you there without any problem.”

He knew the suggestion wouldn’t be a popular one, what with Yuugi’s general attitude towards ‘burdening’ others. But he still couldn’t help the disbelieving frown that marred his face when Yuugi shook his head, dropping his eyes to bowl. “Thanks, Jounouchi-kun. But I don’t see how you could carry me without bending my knee, and it’s gone stiff. I just need to keep it flat, put ice on it, do my stretches and rest until it heals on its own.”

It was true, that was how Yuugi usually handled the old leg injury when it bothered him or he aggravated it in some way.

Except-

“It’s been three weeks now,” Katsuya argued, his buried worry only heating the frustration in his voice. “It’s never taken this long before to heal. We should get a doctor to look at it.”

“Pulled muscles _can_ take a while to heal, Katsuya,” Ryou cut in as he walked into the main room, two more bowls in hand. He put one in front of his boyfriend and kept the other for himself as he sat at the head of the table, smiling into the frowning tension before him. “And that’s under normal circumstances, so we shouldn’t rush him if he needs time. You did say it’s feeling better this week, Yuugi-kun?”

Yuugi nodded, eyes still caught on his bowl… only looking up long enough to zip a glance between both of them as he apologized, “I’m sorry for keeping you here so long, guys…”

“Not at all,” Ryou breezed, while Katsuya bristled beside him with shock.

“Y-yeah, man! It’s not about that! I’m just worried about you, you know that… that, and school.” He didn’t have any classes himself anymore, that was true, but even Katsuya had to flinch when he thought about it.

Yuugi had taken that nasty tumble off of the loft ladder the night before they were set to leave, a mere weekend away from the start of the semester.

And now, they had missed the first three weeks of school.

“Don’t worry about that,” Ryou dismissed, dipping a spoon into his curry and humming around his first bite of dinner as he said, “I spoke to the administration, and our excuses are on file. Even if we have to make something up, and fight it out with a secretary or two not to charge us for classes we couldn’t take, we should be fine. It may just mean starting from scratch with the next term… You wouldn’t have room for another worker in your shop this winter, would you Yuugi-kun? I could use a little extra money after this.”

“Are you kidding?” Yuugi grinned, finally looking up to meet their eyes as humor overtook his features. “After going solo this last month, my mom’s never going to want to work in the shop again. If I’m going to stay in school _and_ keep it open, I’m going to need all of the help I can get.”

Ryou laughed, and Yuugi even chuckled a little bit… but Katsuya just looked on, frowning.

He didn’t say anything for the rest of the meal, letting Yuugi and Ryou chatter on about some rpg game they both liked as he focused on his own food, and his own confusion.

In a sense, he knew he was being silly. He was getting free room and board in an awesome cabin, and passing every day playing games with his best friend and finding new paths up the mountain with his boyfriend. He had nothing to worry about back home, and he knew he would still have a job waiting for him in Yuugi’s shop when they finally got back. For Katsuya, it was the perfect lottery win of a deal.

Except, he hated it there.

The weird incidents had died down, that was true.

They hadn’t seen any flying pans or falling pictures or moving plates or self-opening windows since that first week, and he had even begun to think that half of the stuff he had seen had been in his own head, or natural flukes of an old, drafty house.

…Except…

Yuugi’s futon had been moved to the sitting room after his fall from the ladder, his bedding layered with extra blankets to fight off the cold that never quite reached the loft in the night. The move meant Katsuya and Ryou were left a _little_ more on their own after hours, which was nice, but it wasn’t like they had any actual privacy.

Katsuya realized that the first night of the new arrangement… when he heard the whispers.

He had rolled over, squinted through the dark, and listened.

It was _Yuugi’s_ voice… at least, some of the time…

Other times, he could have sworn…

He didn’t know, but either way Katsuya laid there in the dark and listened, strained to make out what was said below. But even as the whispers continued, night after night, he earned nothing for his troubles. He was just too far away to make out words. All he could tell was Yuugi was talking… to himself? And, for all of the oddity of it, he always sounded so natural. Not upset, or distressed, or sad. Just… casual, like he might at the dinner table, or sitting around the television with _them_.

Sometimes, he even laughed.

In a way, for all of the weirdness of it, it was nice to hear… Yuugi’s laughter had grown rather rare since his grandfather’s death.

Nothing, however, could erase the chill that ran up Katsuya’s spine the night he heard _someone else laugh_.

 _That_ night he had finally rolled out of his and Ryou's futon and climbed down, gone into the sitting room to see if Yuugi was alright… if he was alone.

He was, and baffled by Katsuya’s question. And with nothing to back his concern but his own, uncertain observations, he retreated.

The whispers had quieted after that night… but they never stopped. Not completely. Just, grew rarer. Quieter.

But either way, the issue of Yuugi and his phantom laughter was all but wiped from Katsuya’s mind that same night, when he climbed back up the ladder… to find Ryou sitting up in bed.

Crying.

He had gone to him, asked what was wrong, but Ryou just blinked into awareness with no understanding of why Katsuya was so worried. He didn’t even notice the tears until Katsuya wiped them away and showed them to him.

That had been strange enough… but the incident had made Katsuya suddenly aware of it. That Ryou had never said anything about Yuugi’s whispers, even when they were loud enough to wake _him_. And Ryou was always the lighter sleeper of the two, wasn’t he? Yet he hadn’t, said anything…

None of it made sense.

And it continued to not make sense, as Katsuya began to have nightmares of whispers in the dark, and golden eyes _staring_ at him… and when he turned over one night to find _Ryou_ there, sitting up in bed just _looking_ at him, completely still and not saying a word?

He wasn’t sure where the dreams ended, and the nightmares began.

 _Is it me?_ He wondered, frowning at the cleared table long after Yuugi excused himself for a bath and Ryou went to clean the dishes on his own. _Am I just going crazy out here?_

He didn’t know… and he didn’t think it was likely, but without any proof otherwise? He couldn’t rule it out. Ryou and Yuugi acted natural enough during the _day_ , after all, and both were confused by his attempts to touch the subject. Which… which was more likely? _Both_ of them turning weird in ways he didn’t understand, or… or just him?

What if it was all just his own nerves and impatience, pressing him to badger his injured friend into hurting himself more so that they could all go home, and leave that house behind?

None of this ever happened at home, after all.

“… can’t… won’t, he’s too hur…”

…Katsuya looked up, and stared at the kitchen doorway.

Got up and moved for it as the mumblings carried on.

“Why do you… no, of course… know, I just…”

The moment he crossed the threshold and his boyfriend’s back came into view, a rush of static hummed in the air and the voice seemed to shift a bit, into something unfamiliar and much less broken. But it was still mumbling away, so Katsuya called.

“Ryou?”

Ryou dropped a dish in the sink, causing a slight clatter but no telling shatter as he turned to blink at him, shock quickly giving way to welcoming question as he smiled. “Yes, Katsuya?

The blond’s eyes shifted across the room, already frowning as he realized… the voice was still going, and not coming from his boyfriend. “Who’s that talking?”

“Hmm? _Oh_ , look at that!” Ryou observed as he turned, following the sound to the radio sitting on top of the microwave. “I wonder how long that’s been on. I never even noticed it.”

“…Me neither,” Katsuya said, frowning all the harder to hear Ryou hadn’t just turned it on. “Are you sure about this, staying here?”

“Why not? It’s nice enough here,” Ryou argued, turning back to the sink to fish out and wash that final plate. “And the damage is already done with school, so why shouldn’t we just linger and enjoy ourselves while we can? Our food’s going to run out within the week, so it’s not like we can stay forever anyways.”

“So, you haven’t noticed anything weird about this place?” Katsuya drolled, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he narrowed his eyes on the back of Ryou’s head.

“You mean like Yuugi talking to himself?”

Katsuya jerked, mouth opening and hanging slightly open. He only found his voice again a second later, as Ryou shut off the water and turned to him, wiping his hands. “Y-you noticed?”

“Of course I did, who would miss that?”

“But you didn’t say anything!”

“No,” Ryou sighed, dropping the wet dish towel on the counter and moving to close the distance between them. He wrapped his arms around the waist of a stiff but unprotesting boyfriend. “And why should I? It’s obvious that being cooped up here is just making him restless, keeping him from sleeping. So he’s probably just talking to his gameboy or something.”

“… _Right_ ,” Katsuya breathed, feeling like an idiot now that it had been suggested. Sure, he would have seen the light from the television if Yuugi was watching _that_. But he might have missed the tiny game system, especially if Yuugi kept it under his blankets. “That must have been the other voice I heard, too!”

But, did Yuugi _have_ any games with voices on them?

And why would he hide _playing games_ from them?

“Right, and who can blame him if he stays up late playing?” Ryou asked, smile soft with concession as Katsuya looked down into his face. “He’s gone through a lot lately, and he’s in an unfamiliar house that holds some bad memories for him. If he can’t sleep, and sits up at night, I can’t judge him for that. I’ve had the same problem some nights.”

“Is that why you’ve been hovering over me while I sleep sometimes?” Katsuya asked, expression awkward with a shamefaced tenderness he wasn’t sure how to express.

Ryou nodded… then suddenly laughed, poking him in the ribs. “What did you think I was doing? Admiring your pretty face all night?”

“Well, _no_ ,” Katsuya balked, blushing around the sudden scattering of thoughts that suggestion set off, only to practically _squawk_ as he gripped his backside. “ _Ryou!_ ”

Ryou laughed again, holding up guilty hands in would-be truce as he skirted around him. “Okay, okay, sorry. Just stop looking so serious and come watch that movie with me. You promised, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Katsuya grumbled, still rubbing his pinched butt as he followed him out of the room. “It better not be another horror movie.”

“Hey, you didn’t make _me_ promise anything.”

Behind their backs, a dial on the radio turned.

The radio show shut itself off… just as it had turned itself on when Katsuya first walked into the kitchen.

* * *

“So, he’s a mushroom, but you call him Toad.”

“Yup, as in Toadstool.”

“ _Ah_ ,” hummed out of Yuugi’s throat as his fingers walked the named character through his latest level… the sound and movements of his hands not prompted by Yuugi himself.  

But it was definitely he who smiled when Toad jumped in place a few times, making a _boing boing boing_ sound over and over until the approach of an enemy made the player stop messing around and return to playing the game properly.

“Have you never seen Mario before?”

“Sugoroku never showed me games like this.”

“Makes sense, I guess. He always preferred board games. And, most video games are pretty new, anyways. This one has been out for years, though. Nintendo just re-released it for handheld.”

“...am I supposed to know what Nintendo is?”

Yuugi had discovered a funny thing in the last few weeks. Even if he couldn’t _stop_ the ghost from doing something with his body, he himself could still ‘interrupt’ the spirit’s actions to use his own limbs, so long as the ghost didn’t stop him in turn.

He usually didn’t anymore.

And Yuugi used that allowance then to pause the game, the better to hold still and process his shock at that question.

He _didn’t even know about Nintendo_.

“…you need to get out more, ghost.”

“I would prefer it if you didn’t call me that,” the being within him protested politely, gently seizing control of the hands back to unpause his game.

“What should I call you, then?”

Yuugi’s mouth shut with his question and stayed shut for some time. And honestly, the silence was a relief in its own way… his jaw had been aching a lot lately from the demands of two active, constantly chattering voices.

But the latest level ended, and with it the silence dragged on until Yuugi started to frown. “…are you, not going to answer?”

“I am thinking,” came out of his throat as soon as he finished the question, a sigh ghosting over his raised hands and sending a shiver up Yuugi’s back. It had been _his own breath_ , but there was still something eerily intimate about the sensation, and the shock of it distracted him through the belated answer. “I suppose ‘ghost’ will have to do.”

“N-no,” Yuugi protested, frowning at the game in place of the face he could not see… a face that would merely be his own, anyways. “I don’t want to call you something you don’t like. And I get it if you forgot your own name, but… why don’t you just pick a new one?”

“No,” the spirit shook his… their… _his_ head almost instantly, starting up the next game level. “I’m not sure why, but it feels wrong to call myself something that is not true.”

“Alright, but… what about a descriptor then?”

“You mean like a title?”

“Yeah, that’s why I was calling you ghost, anyways.”

“What other descriptor would you give me?”

“Well… I don’t know…” Yuugi frowned for his own lack of answer, realizing he really _didn’t_ know what to say. What else would you call a spirit that possessed your skin and haunted a house besides _ghost_?

He didn’t know, but his inner guest did not demand a reply. He just finished his latest level in Mario, put down the game, and sat back. “You should eat.”

“Huh?” Yuugi blinked up at the wall, shooting it the confused look he would need a mirror to properly aim. “Why?”

“You’re hungry.”

“I’m not… oh,” he finished on a whisper, a flush rising up his cheeks as he registered his stomach was indeed empty. “I, guess it is lunch time. Thanks, I didn’t notice.”

The spirit hummed in his throat again, but said nothing. At least, not until Yuugi stood up from the table, and flinched with the effort. A frown that was growing all too familiar tugged at Yuugi’s brow and mouth. “I still cannot believe you hurt yourself like this.”

“I told you, it was an accident,” Yuugi insisted, sighing as he limped his way to the kitchen… it was really too bad he hadn’t thought to bring his emergency cane to the mountain. Moving around was a real pain without it. “I meant to fall, yeah, but I angled myself to land on my butt, not my leg. How was I supposed to know my knee would hit the ladder on the way down and turn me over?”

“You still took the risk on purpose,” the spirit drummed on, not in the least distracted by Yuugi’s excuses or rummaging in the pantry for some instant noodles. “You shouldn’t be so reckless with your own health.”

“And done what instead? Told my friends about you, and that we were going to get killed if we went home the next day?”

The spirit… didn’t reply. And honestly, Yuugi was just fine with that. He had some food to microwave, and the sheer oddity of his circumstances to consider.

He was getting a lecture on not hurting himself from a ghost that had threatened to slit his throat just a month ago.

But, that was… oddly par for the course now, wasn’t it? However many times they returned to the subject of sacrifices and ethics and threats, there was only so much they could say before they hit a dead-end, and needed to retreat to reload their metaphorical ammo.

And in the meantime Yuugi couldn’t sleep, and was left alone in the house for much of the day… and they both liked games, so why not play? Why not talk?

Why not try to understand each other a little better?

It was like those stories he had read in school, of soldiers in World War I coming out to celebrate a holiday with their enemies. For one day, they had stopped trying to bury bullets in one another and called a truce. Shook hands, sang songs, even played some games. It was a short peace, of course, and the true bloodiness of that war still lay ahead of them. But the truce was still seen as proof that the soldiers were fighting for a _cause_ , not out of hatred of their enemy. Humanity could still be found there in no man’s land, in the hearts of killers.

And Yuugi… he was surprised by how much humanity he had discovered in his ghost.

But then, he had far more than a single day to get to know him.

That didn’t mean he knew _everything_ yet, though, so with a minute left on the microwave timer, Yuugi asked, “Have you ever done this with anyone else?”

Curiosity tugged at his eyebrows. “Had lunch?”

“What it, _no_!” Yuugi started, shooting a flushing glower at his twisted reflection in the back of a hanging pan while his chest shuddered with a laugh that was _definitely_ not his own. “Asked someone to bring you people, sacrifices! You know, before _Jii-chan_.”

The flutter in his chest instantly stilled, and a silence hung for a few breaths before the spirit replied, tone oddly reluctant. “No. At least, no one I remember.”

“You keep saying that. That you don’t remember things.”

“I don’t. Just, some unknown period of time in the tomb before Sugoroku appeared, then before that… fog.”

Yuugi didn’t know what to make of that, but as the microwave beeped and he opened the door, he asked, “Then, how do you know that you need to kill people? That it’s necessary?”

“Because it is.”

That old, grim flat tone again.

Yuugi shook his head in the face of it, fishing some chopsticks out of a drawer before retreating back into the other room with his noodles. “That makes no sense.”

“What surprises me is you would choose to talk about it. I was going to let you enjoy your lunch first.”

Yuugi frowned around _that_ statement, letting his mouth stay shut for a while after the spirit closed it.

It was weird… The spirit kept giving Yuugi these ‘breaks’ he never asked for. And when he stopped to think about it, it really seemed like _Yuugi_ was bringing the sacrifice issue up more often than the _spirit_ now.

“I just, want this dealt with,” Yuugi finally answered. He sat back down at the table, propping his heel up on the chair across from him to stretch his leg out. “You keep insisting on this, that you have to sacrifice people. But you won’t explain _why_ it’s necessary, and I’m starting to think even _you_ don’t know. And it’s a pretty horrible thing to do for nothing.”

“I know _why_ …” the spirit insisted on a whisper, disturbing Yuugi’s efforts to eat with quiet words and soft frowns. “I cannot forget the cause when it is always with me.”

Yuugi sucked in a breath. That was… _vague_ , but it was the closest thing he had gotten to a real answer in _weeks_. “What do you mean?”

… Silence.

Yuugi frowned down at his food, thinking… he had made something of an art of it, reading the spirit’s silences. It was difficult since he had no eyes to read, and no face to look at. But there was still something to be read in the slight pulls in his face that were not his own.

The skin had wrinkled between his eyes, and his lips had pursed for just a moment, just before Yuugi himself frowned.

Regret, second thoughts, reluctance…

Yuugi put down his chopsticks. “You don’t trust me,” he said, voice quiet and flat, his shoulders stiffening with phantom impulses. “You know why you’re doing this… but you don’t trust me enough to tell me.”

“You won’t even agree to help me,” the spirit whispered, barely claiming enough control to utter _that_. And he did nothing to fight it when Yuugi shook his head.

“Not _blindly_ , no! And, not like that…” he curled his hand in the pant leg of his good leg, twisting the fabric as he stared imploringly at the bookshelf across the room. “I _want_ to help you, even if not in that way, but… you seem so desperate somehow. No, no… burdened,” he corrected, fishing around for words he had never fully formed in his own head. “You keep putting this off, the same as me, but I can tell you’re worried about something. Getting more worried. You keep talking to me, worrying about me… but you won’t stop. Won’t explain yourself. Won’t say what you’re worried _for_ …”

… Nothing.

He had finally run out of words, but the spirit said nothing. Yuugi couldn’t even feel the tension of him hovering within his skin.

Had he ‘left’ him?

The possibility made him shiver in a way he did not understand.

“Please…” Yuugi breathed, staring down into his noodles without any real hope of answer. “Why are you doing this?”

…

He sat there at the dinner table.

Alone.

* * *

“ _Yuugi!!_ ”

Yuugi jerked at the call, looking up from his game of solitaire to gawk at the man huffing and shuddering in the front door. “Jounouchi-kun?” he asked, instantly struggling to get up from the table at the panic he saw in his best friend’s eyes. “What’s wrong? Where’s Bakura-kun?!”

“I’m right here,” Ryou called as he stepped up behind his boyfriend, the would-be reassurance in his voice undermined by the strain on his own face. “I’m fine, but-” He looked up at Katsuya, shared a lost look that only made Yuugi’s heart race the faster.

“ _What?_ ” he breathed, darting looks between them as he waited, vicarious panic making his hands sweat and pulse flutter in his head.

What… what could have happened to make them so…

He didn’t know… but when Ryou wordlessly pulled out his camcorder? The one he had been making videos with all month to show Yuugi when he and Katsuya got back at the end of the day?

Yuugi could only watch as he messed with the settings, turned on the preview display, and held the camera out to him.

He didn’t know what could be on that video… but he still had to force himself to take it. To press play and look.

He instantly dropped it.

“ _What…_ ”

“We found her on the side of the road,” Ryou explained, not even reacting to Yuugi dropping his camcorder. “Just a half a mile up the mountain from here.”

“We’ve been passing by her every day,” Katsuya breathed, staring aghast at some point on the wall only he could see. “Right by her. I wouldn’t have noticed her _today_ if I hadn’t stopped to tie my shoe, and looked up and noticed her… her… _her hair_ sticking out.”

Yuugi just, shook his head… trying in vain to erase that image from his head.

The image of that frozen _mummy of a woman, curled up like a baby in the snow_.

A, a mummy… with blood stains still visible below the empty eyes.

“We think it was the maid,” Ryou explained, as if context would bring some equilibrium to the situation.

Instead, the suggestion jerked through Yuugi like a shot, and he looked up to stare at Ryou.

Through Ryou.

“T-the… _how could_ …” How could it be her?! The _maid_?! B-but the spirit was the one who…

Who…

… No.

No no _no no nononono_ -

“The body was still wearing an apron, and this is the only house within miles,” Ryou was reasoning somewhere over his head, but Yuugi couldn’t hear it. Didn’t want to hear it. He was too busy shaking his head, turning and stumbling away from the pair.

“Yuugi,” Katsuya started as he reached out, grabbed his arm, but Yuugi just jerked against the grip.

“Gonna be sick,” he breathed, words a threat and warning in one, and enough to get Katsuya to let go on impulse and let him run to the bathroom.

Katsuya called after him still, and his leg screamed, but Yuugi ignored them both and stumbled into the room, slammed the door shut behind him. He fell over, hands catching on the cold tiles as he dry-heaved for air.

Nothing came up, but his lunch rolled threats in his gut as his head spun with shock and denial… and _rage_.

“ _You_ …” he breathed, the word less voiced than mouthed. But still, he knew he was heard. Felt it as a tension that was not his own ran up his spine. The sensation of _him_ beneath his skin made Yuugi’s eyes water.

He wanted to claw off his own back.

“It was _you_. _You killed_ -”

“I already told you I sacrificed her,” the voice that wasn’t his interrupted, and Yuugi clenched his teeth against it. Against giving _him_ voice through his own body.

“Not her,” he gasped, struggling to find his feet and stand. It shot new pain up through his body, but he did not cry. Did not give into it. Just stood through it, tense and still in the dark bathroom as he stared at his feet and clenched his hands. “My father… you killed him.”

…

He didn’t say anything.

The silence ate at Yuugi until he didn’t _care_ if his friends heard, if they noticed as he screamed, “ _Well?!_ ”

“…I killed Renju,” the ghost confirmed, with Yuugi’s own mouth.

He would have ripped his tongue and all of his teeth out, if it would just undo that truth.

“Why…” he whispered, hands shaking even as he squeezed them tighter. “ _Why?!_ ”

“Sugoroku sent him to me,” the _thing_ said, voice calm… empty… _resigned_ as he went on, every movement of Yuugi’s mouth he required to explain himself resented by the owner. “He was getting old, and he wanted Renju to carry on his duties for him. Sugoroku did everything he could to convince him, even told him the secrets I had meant only for him. For the one I trusted to help me.” The ghost sighed the air in Yuugi’s lungs, shook _his_ head. “I wish he hadn’t done that… if Renju hadn’t known where I was, and how to hurt me, I could have let him go… but I couldn’t let him leave, spouting threats to reveal all of this and report Sugoroku to the police, with _that_ knowledge in his head.”

“So you killed him,” Yuugi breathed when it was clear the ghost was done, words quiet and heavy with the fragility of his calm.

He was _so stupid_.

How had he not seen it?! How had he not put together the ghost’s killings and his father’s death? It was _so obvious_ -

“If it is any consolation, I did not truly sacrifice him. He must have been a good man… His sins were too few to be of use to me.”

That calm shattered.

Yuugi screamed. Dropped to his knees and slammed his fists into tiles.

Somewhere someone cried his name, and it was some moments before Yuugi realized it wasn’t just Katsuya and Ryou from across the house.

It was the ghost.

“Stop it!” it demanded, _with his mouth_ , and Yuugi forced himself back up far too fast, ignored the voice and claimed back his jaw to speak.

“I’m leaving.”

The ghost… said nothing. Not fast enough for Yuugi. So, he repeated himself.

“I am _leaving_. My friends won’t want to stay after they found that body. They’ll agree. We’re going to pack our things, go down to the bus stop, go home, call the police, and I am _not coming back_.”

… He almost expected it when someone tried the door behind him, and the lock clicked into place by itself.

Someone pounded on the door.

“What the hell?! Yuugi! _Open the door!_ ”

Katsuya kept banging away, crying for entrance… but Yuugi did not let him in.

He knew even without trying that the ghost would not let him move.

“I can’t let you do that…” it whispered through him, every syllable weighted and catching in his throat with, with emotion Yuugi did not understand.

That he did not care to understand anymore.

“Then kill me,” Yuugi replied, staring blindly at the wall before him as he challenged the ghost with flat, numb directness. “Kill me, and stop me from walking away.” From ever possibly telling someone what he was, where he was.

Yuugi knew he was capable of it, after all. Killing to protect himself.

And perhaps the rage pacing through Yuugi would fuel whatever sin the ghost could find within his heart, once he sacrificed him. Maybe it would buy him a little time to find his next helper.

His next victim.

In the end, that was all Yuugi would be… one more sacrifice tossed into the darkness because he would not walk into it willingly.

But when Yuugi’s hands inevitably twitched, moved as if the rise? To, wrap around his own throat, or find a razor, or maybe just gesture and cast whatever magic could make his eyes pop and bleed out of his face?

They only clenched at his sides, shaking.

“I can’t…” he breathed… _it_ breathed, through Yuugi’s lips.

And Yuugi could only blink, completely numb as tears he never cried ran freely down his face.

Weeped not by him… but by the ghost.

“ _I can’t_ …” the thing whispered again, words catching on a sob that shook Yuugi’s whole form, and spoke of an emotion Yuugi did not feel, but could not deny.

Whatever the reason may be, the ghost was… defeated. Crushed.

Heartbroken.

And it should have softened Yuugi to him… but all he could see was a being that _could_ hesitate. That _did_ have limits to what he was willing to do.

But… he had never felt any compunction about killing that maid.

Or his father.

Or the countless others before him.

If the ghost _could_ stay his hand… that meant, whatever his reasons for doing this, he did have a choice.

And he had chosen to kill.

“I’m leaving,” Yuugi repeated, quieter. Calmer. Kinder.

Undeniable.

And there was no answer. No obstruction. Just a shudder through his chest as he turned and unlocked the door.

Katsuya was still there, yelling away. But he jerked his hand away as he locked eyes with Yuugi.

“W-what-”

“Pack up your stuff, Jounouchi-kun. We’re going home,” Yuugi said as he stepped out of the restroom and bypassed his friend, making for the closet and their suitcases.

Tears running down his face he did not weep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Closing Chapter Music: [When the Truth Hunts You Down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKKlshytcpc)
> 
> The next chapter hopefully to come _very soon_!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp, I managed it! Two chapters in one day! 
> 
> But, uh… I’m just gonna say this: this is a horror story. It does not have a happy ending… I don’t feel I can say much more than that without spoilers, but. 
> 
> Yeah. 
> 
> Prep the kitten videos and the tissues.
> 
> Opening Chapter Music: [Bones](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDpdpE00rfI) by MsMr

****“You doing alright back there?” Katsuya asked, craning his head back to frown at the portion of Yuugi he could see. “Leg leaving you be?”

“Yeah…” his friend mumbled, never lifting his head from Katsuya’s shoulder. The reticent reply tempted the blond to put Yuugi down and get a good look at him, to talk to him…

But that would mean delaying their departure.

“You almost done up there?!” Katsuya called, turning to look up the loft, hiking Yuugi a bit higher up his back with the move. “We’re ready to go!”

“Yes! I just need to finish packing my own bag,” Ryou replied, sticking his head over the side to smile at them. “You go ahead, I’ll catch up!”

“Leave without you?” Yuugi asked, speaking up on his own for the first time in some minutes at _that_ suggestion. It made Katsuya frown, too, confusion painting both men’s faces.

“What’s the point of _that_?” Katsuya scoffed. “We have to leave together at the bus stop.”

“Yes, but even with the bags, I’m going to be able to move faster than you will with Yuugi. We’ll have a better chance of catching the bus if you get a head start.”

“He has a point, I suppose…” Katsuya grumbled, earning a mute nod from Yuugi before the latter called up.

“All right! I’ll leave the key on the table, so make sure you lock up when you leave!” He did _not_ want anyone else wandering in there after them, if he could help it…

“Okay! I’ll bring it with me, so don’t worry!”

“Right…” Katsuya grumbled, shooting one last look at his boyfriend before turning to go. “Just hurry up, okay?!”

“Got it!”

As Katsuya struggled with the door and grumbled about bringing too much stuff with them into the house, Yuugi looked over his shoulder at the room.

His tears had dried up minutes ago, and he hadn’t heard a peep or felt a twitch from the ghost since.

Part of him expected one last desperate ploy to keep him in the house.

Another part expected a goodbye.

And a third was disappointed when Katsuya carried him out into the snow without either happening.

He stifled that last part within him, and asked, “Are you really going to be okay carrying me all the way down the mountain, Jounouchi-kun?”

“Pffft, are you kidding? You’re as light as toddler. I could carry you halfway across Japan if I wanted.”

“Gee, thanks…”

Katsuya had the gall to snort at his tone, but both went quiet as they squinted against the late afternoon snow, the wind making a valiant effort to get it in their eyes. Yuugi was just thankful that it wasn’t a full-fledged storm again, or else there was no way they would have made it out of the house that night.

Instead, they would hopefully be back home by morning, and could put this whole thing behind him.

…

But, why had his grandfather sent him to that house in the first place?

That was the one thing he couldn’t really answer… his grandfather’s thinking.

He had harbored a killer in his home, helped him murder, _watched that thing kill his only son_ , and… and done nothing.

Sent _him_ there, too.

Why?

 _Please, Yuugi- You have to go to the cabin. It can’t- It has to be you, no one else- No one else can go there before you do,_ **_please_** _-_

“Hey, Jounouchi-kun?” he whispered, barely audible over the wind. He must have been heard, though, because Katsuya hummed in question in front of him, and Yuugi trailed on. “Sorry… about bringing both of you up to the cabin,” he apologized, staring out into the woods as they walked by. “We never should have come here.”

“And we never would have let you come alone, so you can cut out that sorry stuff right now.”

 _But I never should have come either_ , he thought, but did not say.

“I just don’t get what’s been going on with you, or Ryou,” Katsuya huffed on, half-breathless from the trek and Yuugi’s weight and the wind stealing his air.

“I don’t know about Bakura-kun, but… you wouldn’t believe me if I told you…”

“You might be surprised,” Katsuya countered, shaking his head. “I’ve seen some weird shit this month. I wouldn’t take much for granted at this point.”

Yuugi hiccuped with something that might have been a laugh, an empty smile tugging at his face. “Maybe when we get back, then… I don’t really want to talk about it while we’re up here. A few dozen miles behind us and a warm house might do the trick, though.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that, buddy.”

Yuugi just grinned, squeezing his arms about Katsuya’s shoulders before relaxing again, letting the silence hang…

That is, until they reached the still quiet bus stop at the base of the path, and it occurred to Yuugi that “Shouldn’t… shouldn’t Bakura-kun have caught up to us by now?”

Katsuya turned, stared with him at the path they had just walked. “Y...yeah, definitely.” They had been going slow the entire way down, and even if Ryou took his time packing, he should have caught up to them by now.

If… if he had been hurrying.

If he had left the house.

The two stood in silence for awhile, waiting… _hoping_ for a figure to appear at the root of the path.

No one did.

“He should be here by now,” Katsuya repeated with harder purpose, prompting a nod from Yuugi as the shorter bit his lip.

It had to be that he was slowed somehow… maybe Ryou realized he forgot something at the house halfway down, and doubled back to get it.

But that didn’t stop Yuugi’s skin from itching when he thought about the fact that they had left Ryou in the house… alone… with the ghost.

_He wouldn’t… He said Bakura-kun and Jounouchi-kun didn’t have enough sin in them to be worth it, right?_

_He wouldn’t… he_ **_wouldn’t_** _._

“…I’m going back to look for him,” Katsuya announced, immediately moving for the bench right below the bus sign.

“What, it, Jounouchi-kun!” Yuugi cried as his friend dropped him onto the seat. “If you’re going back, then I-”

“Don’t worry about it, man,” Katsuya interrupted, unzipping and shrugging out of his outer winter coat, dropping it at Yuugi’s side. The sacrifice left Katsuya in little more than a sweater as he gave him a thumbs up. “I’ll be faster this way. I’ll just run and make sure he’s on his way, and be right back! Just tell the bus to wait for us!”

“But what if… Jounouchi-kun!” Yuugi yelled as Katsuya turned and sprinted back through the snow.

He didn’t turn back… left Yuugi to look between his receding back, and the snowy street before him.

The bus would be there within the hour… a single look at his watch told him that.

And it was the last bus run of the night. If they missed it, they wouldn’t be able to get out of there until morning.

…

Yuugi stared for all of twenty seconds, then stood up, and started up the path himself.

He wouldn’t be able to catch up. Running was out of the question, and climbing at even a slow trek sent a throb up his leg with every step.

But he couldn’t just sit there… he just couldn’t stand it.

If he was wrong… if there was really _nothing wrong_ , then he would meet them coming the other way, and they could go back to the bus stop together.

But he didn’t meet them… he stumbled back up the mountain one clumsy, cold step at a time, and ran into no one the whole way up.

He arrived alone at the cabin’s front door.

Where he stopped… and stared… at the window just beside it.

It had shattered inward.

Yuugi’s hands shook in his gloves where they had been numb seconds ago, blood pounding through his extremities and his ears as he took slow, wary steps forward, mind rushing to take in every detail he could.

The room beyond the window was dark, the curtains catching in the loose wind the only movement he could see.

But, he could _hear_ it… a pounding, and a tearing.

Like wood being bent in half.

He gulped as he reached the door, and tried the knob.

It was locked…

He hadn’t left it locked.

The sounds within instantly stilled.

Yuugi sucked in his breath and held it, painfully conscious of the fact that _whatever was making that sound_ had heard him, too.

He stared at the painted wood with blind eyes, waiting… _waiting_ for something to happen.

But nothing did.

What had to be a minute, or two, or five raked by without a single sound.

And all he did in the interim was dart his eyes to the window.

He was at a bad angle… he couldn’t see much inside.

But, neither could anything within see _him_.

So… what was it waiting for?

What was _in there_?

…

He wanted to run. To turn around and walk away from what was so clearly _wrong_ inside that house.

But, Katsuya, and Ryou… they were still missing.

They, had to be inside…

Yuugi clenched his eyes shut against the tears threatening to gather… and moved to the window.

He climbed in, keeping his eyes ever forward in search of _anything_ that might get in his way, or jump at him as he struggled through the opening.

But, nothing did… when he tripped inside of the main room of the cabin, nothing popped up to greet him.

He was standing in that dark, familiar room, the same as always…

But as his eyes drifted towards the ladder, an all too familiar _something_ slammed through his guts and took control of his mouth.

“ _Yuugi_ ,” it hissed at him, anxiety and anger and _desperate fear_ running loose in that voice. “I-it’s too late. You have to get out. _Get out_ ,” it begged.

But it really was too late.

Yuugi never saw it coming. One second he was standing alone in the room with nothing but that ghost talking through him.

The next a figure stepped out of the shadow of the door, hooked his ankle with a foot, and tripped him.

He cried out as his bad leg gave out from under him, slamming him down to the ground.

“Took you long enough,” the unknown assailant complained, stepping into the light as Yuugi rolled over, tears in his eyes as he clutched his thigh.

But his cry caught in his throat as he saw his attacker and…

“Bakura-kun?” he breathed, wet confusion clogging his throat as he stared up at his friend.

Into his… _golden_ eyes.

 _What_ …

“Hello, Yuugi,” the… the, something, with Bakura’s face greeted, smiling all too politely as Yuugi took in every feature he could… and his heart sank with each realization.

The tears streaming freely from golden eyes… eyes that did not match the anguish of that weeping.

The dust and _blood_ caking his face, and shirt, and pants.

The… the knife… stained, and dripping, there in his hand.

Yuugi swallowed, body beginning to shake as he numbly tried to make sense of what he saw. Every answer presented… un-unacceptable…

“I was waiting for you to come in for quite a while. It wouldn’t do for you to walk in while I was working, after all… But you took so long, that it’s just me and you now.”

“What,” Yuugi started, his tears choking him even as his mind struggled to accept the conclusion he had already come to. “What do you…”

“It doesn’t matter,” the not-Ryou said, voice all but soothing as he adjusted the blade in his hand. “I’ll have a better use for you in just a minute, if you’ll just stay put and not get in the way. But, if you need some help _sitting still_ -”

Yuugi… couldn’t do anything as the familiar stranger dove at him.

The _one inside of him though_ -

“ _Stay away from him,_ ” the spirit hissed, every muscle in Yuugi’s body tensing as _he_ grit his teeth and glared at the stranger hovering just over him.

Yuugi… Yuugi’s brow _burned_ with heat he did not understand, and the not-Ryou stalled.

“You,” the golden-eyed thing breathed, staring down at him in clear disbelief. “You would use the last of your strength to protect _him_ , not yourself?”

Yuugi, didn’t understand… but the spirit must have.

He was clenching his fingers in the floor, glaring up without blinking, or speaking.

Finally, just as Yuugi thought his heart would beat through his chest, the pale-haired shadow laughed.

The sound of it made Yuugi’s eyes water again.

“Have it your way then…” the thing dismissed, turning to walk into the sitting room.

Being released from that golden stare sent a rush of confused adrenaline through Yuugi’s blood, but the spirit kept him still, whispered to him.

“Just stay back, Yuugi. He will leave as soon as he is done… he won’t consider it worth getting through me to hurt you. Just, stay back… and once he leaves, _run_. Get away from here.”

“But-” Yuugi protested, only for a sound in the next room to interrupt him and prompt him to lift his head.

He froze.

He could see the sitting room from where he groveled on the floor, and…

And the _thing_ was slamming a sledgehammer into a section of the wall, right beside the closet.

He had already opened up a large hole there, revealing a small open cavity behind the panel… a part of the closet that had apparently been permanently walled off.

And… and there was something inside of it.

Something large and _golden_.

 _What_ … Yuugi mused, his eyes straining to make out details… but in his search for answers he noticed something.

Something _across_ the room from that hole and the stranger, at the other edge of Yuugi’s view of the sitting room.

His gaze slid to it and stuck… failed to register what it was.

Only for the realization to slam into him with all of the force of that hammer.

It was leg… and a shoe.

Katsuya’s sneaker.

He jerked forward, tried to crawl.

The spirit held down his limbs.

“ _Don’t look_ ,” he hissed, only to slap a hand over his mouth as Yuugi fought to take back control only to _sob_ , to give rise to the scream pounding through his chest.

The spirit wouldn’t let him… so the pain rolled out of him in tears, and the quake of his shoulders… the only comfort one of his own hands rising to clutch his other arm, clenching with a pulse of sympathy each time a cry denied shook through Yuugi’s body.

He didn’t try to get up after that… just howled in silence on the floor until, finally, the scrape of metal on metal made him look up.

He watched through his tears as the stranger pushed the golden mass out into the open… a sarcophagus that should have been too heavy for _twenty men_ to move.

He knocked the lid off like it was paper, and it pounded into the floor with a roar that rang up through Yuugi’s ears.

He barely flinched… just watched, barely moving, barely _feeling_ as an unearthly cloud of shadow rose up from within the coffin and formed a demonic shape of foggy black and golden eyes… and flew inside of Ryou.

He cried out.

 _Ryou_ cried out.

And the sound of it, of the _real_ Ryou’s voice made Yuugi jerk, but the spirit still wouldn’t let him move.

And all he could do was watch as his friend fell to his knees and bent forward… then slowly straightened again.

Laughing, with the demon’s voice.

“Finally… _Finally_ …” he breathed, rising back up to his feet with slow movements, rolling his head.

“He’s free,” the spirit in Yuugi’s head breathed, and… and something of the defeat in his voice sent a short spark of life through the young man’s deadened heart. “I’m sorry, Yuugi… I can’t stop him now… it’s all been for nothing.”

Yuugi wanted to ask, but there was no time before those golden eyes turned and focused on _him_ again… a horrid grin forming on the thing’s face.

“Bakura-kun,” Yuugi breathed, but the demon just laughed. Stood, stepped passed the sarcophagus, and the body at his feet, and _Yuugi_ … opened the front door, and walked out into the snow.

Into the night.

The bloody knife back in his hand.

And Yuugi just… watched him go… the cold snaking up around his limbs as it drifted in from outside.

He couldn’t feel it… couldn’t feel anything, as his eyes drifting back to the sitting room door.

To the legs sticking out, just beyond the sarcophagus.

“I was, sealed away with him,” the spirit was saying through him. But even as his own mouth moved, Yuugi didn’t feel it. Didn’t feel the pain as he rose back up to his feet. “I don’t know what he is, but… I knew he would destroy everything,” he said as Yuugi stumbled towards the other room. “I knew that I could keep him sealed away with me if I took the sins from mortals’ hearts, and ‘fed’ them to him. That they would put him to sleep… keep him asleep. I knew, I had to do it. Feed him. If I didn’t, and he woke up… If he drew a victim to himself and possessed him, broke loose, he would run rampant across the world and kill again and again and _again_ until he wore his host completely out… then he would kill _him_ and find a new host, and do it all over again.”

Yuugi stumbled at that last bit.

 _Kill his host_.

…

Then he kept walking.

“He won’t rest… he won’t ever rest. He will just keep _killing_ until everyone in the world is dead by his hand. He knows nothing but destruction. A… a vengeance I don’t understand powers him, I don’t know-”

Then Yuugi crossed the threshold, and saw.

Sobbed.

Fell to his knees at Katsuya’s feet.

His best friend… he was crumpled up on the floor, clutching his stomach. Trying in vain to hold in the blood that oozed out between his fingers and pooled on the floor.

Eyes… his eyes, stuck open, wet and wide.

And dead.

Yuugi reached out and clutched his ankle with shaking fingers, his whole body trembling with sobs as he fell forward. Curled around his friend’s leg.

 _Jounouchi-kun_ …

There was nothing to be done… nothing to be said… nothing to fix this.

Nothing but the pain wracking his body, cruelly insisting he was still alive.

Nothing but the silence… until his chest stilled enough that the spirit could speak through him again.

His voice quaking with what had to be Yuugi’s own tears.

“You… You need to go.”

He shook his head, kept his face buried in Katsuya’s pant leg, but the voice persisted.

“Yuugi, I mean it. He will come back, I am sure of it. He knows you will be vulnerable soon… That I won’t be here to protect you.”

“W-what…” he breathed, after he got back his voice and sucked back another dry wail.

He… he didn’t care about _protection_ , but… what did he mean, _won’t be here to_?

“He exposed me to the air. I will be gone soon.”

...the air?

Slowly, as if the truth was wafting up to him from the depths of some deep ocean, Yuugi understood.

He raised his head to stare at the sarcophagus.

 _His_ sarcophagus.

“You’re, in there…” he breathed, words clogged by the tears still staining his throat and face. “ _That’s_ what _Jii-chan_ brought back from Egypt.”

“Yes,” the spirit breathed through his lips as Yuugi stood and approached the great golden coffin.

“And he, he knew… he knew about the demon… that you had to kill, to keep him contained… what would happen, if it ever got loose.”

“Yes,” the spirit said again, and Yuugi’s legs shook with the grief and guilt that struck him with cruel suddenness.

 _Please, Yuugi- You have to go to the cabin. It can’t- It has to be you, no one else- No one else can go there before you do,_ **_please_** _-_

He didn’t listen.

He had ignored him… had brought potential victims right to that demon’s door.

Had brought _his own friends to the slaughter_.

“I’m sorry,” the spirit whispered, and Yuugi shook his head. “I… I went too long, without a sacrifice. The demon woke up, and targeted your friend. If I had just told you… just trusted you from the start-”

“No,” Yuugi started. It was… it was _him_! _He_ should be apologizing to, to _him_ , and to his grandfather, and to Ryou, and- and…

His eyes swerved to Katsuya, and another wail rose up from his gut. He smothered it in his hand as he fell back to his knees, his free hand curling on the stone lip of the sarcophagus.

“Yuugi…” the spirit breathed, and he shook his head.

He didn’t deserve it… didn’t deserve the strange kindness… the pained softness in that spirit’s voice.

“Why did this happen…” Yuugi whispered as the latest sobs passed, resting his head against the side of the case, hieroglyphics and symbols he could not understand pressing against his brow.

The spirit did not answer. He just repeated, “You have to go.”

Yuugi shook his head again, shut his eyes. “…you said, you will be gone.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“My, soul is tied to my body… and it is now exposed to the air. The magic is leaving it. When it decomposes, I will go with it.”

“Will you,” Yuugi started, swallowing around the lump in his throat as he sought some little bit of solace… some, silver lining in this new loss. “Will you be free then?”

“…”

…Yuugi opened his eyes at that silence, and stared at a carved bird on the side of the case. “Ghost?”

“…I, do not know what will become of me.”

Yuugi, stared… “But…” But, what? What could he say?

His lips twitched with a smile he did not form. _Could_ not form. “Do not worry about that. You should go, Yuugi. I told you, he will be back. If you hurry, you might yet catch the bus. And if you hear of some strange deaths in some corner of the world, run to the farthest corner from it. It… it will be some time before he will find you again, if you do that. Decades, even… I would have you enjoy them however you can. Wherever you can.”

The words were coaxing, almost tender.

But Yuugi could barely hear them over the odd pounding of his heart.

“There’s… there’s no other way? To… to stop him? To save Bakura-kun? Save you?”

A long, heavy silence followed his words… followed by short, simple, “No.”

It should have been soul-crushing. Completely defeating.

But Yuugi’s eyes narrowed.

He had felt it, just before the spirit spoke…

His brow had furrowed.

“You’re lying.”

His lips pursed a touch. “Yuugi-”

“What aren’t you telling me?” he demanded, only for his head to shake with the spirit’s denial.

He tried to move Yuugi to his feet. “Just go, you’ll miss the bus for sure if you don’t-”

“ _No_ ,” he snapped, stiffening his feet in place as soon as he stood. The spirit didn’t fight him. “What are you hiding from me? Could it… could it stop him? Because if it can, _how can you not_ -”

“You would die,” his mouth snapped back at him, clipping shut as his whole body tensed… with the spirit’s reaction. “Saving me, giving me the means to stop him, it would mean hunting out a hundred times more sinners and sacrifices and _it would kill you_. Not at once, not quickly, but…”

The spirit trailed off, his whole body wilting under the weight of his confession… a sort of pained defeat already starting to invade his voice, because he must have known on some level what the reply would be.

For Yuugi had stared into Katsuya’s dead eyes the entire time… and the moment silence fell again, he whispered, “What must I do?”

The spirit shook his head, and Yuugi could feel it. The threat of tears aching again in his chest. “Yuugi…”

“If you try to make me leave,” the young man said, explaining in slow, simple, calm words. “You will just lose control of me again the moment I step of the house, right? So, I can just walk right back in… right up until you are gone, or the demon comes back.”

The spirit pursed his lips again… and they trembled. “ _Yuugi_ …”

“Please,” Yuugi breathed back, shutting his eyes against the tears gathering there. “Just, give me a choice in this… _please_.”

It was the only thing he had left.

After a long, painful moment… the spirit whispered to him.

And Yuugi turned, as he was told. Reached into the open sarcophagus and pulled back the white cloth that was far, far too fresh for what had to be an ancient burial veil.

Stared, as he came face to face with the young king beneath the cloth.

A king, covered in gold and white linen, draped in a cape of royal purple, a tiara crown glittering upon his brow.

Above a face that was a near-exact mirror of Yuugi’s own.

A day ago… an _hour_ ago, Yuugi might have gawked, or questioned it.

Now he simply _stared_ as that figure, so fresh it seemed to be sleeping, turned to dust before his eyes.

And then that dust flew in his face.

He dropped the cloth and covered his eyes, screamed as they burned, as his _bones_ burned, as every tiny cell in his body-

The heat centered on his brow again, shone there-

And his mind made room for another.

* * *

_A few months later…_

“What do you think, Okuma?” one man jeered to the other, the pair locking eyes and smirking as they hovered close over the man they had cornered in the alley. “Usually I’d say we should break a knee, but it looks like someone got ahead of us with this one.”

“True,” Okuma drolled back, eying the short figure in front of him as he talked, smiling for the way the cripple focused on his own shoes instead of fighting back or crying for help. “But there’s no reason we couldn’t finish the job with the other leg.”

His friend chuckled at that, only for both of them to go silent and gawk as the man _spoke up_.

“And, if I still don’t pay back the money I won in our game, what will you do then?”

Okuma shot his friend a look over the short man’s head. _Was he crazy?!_ Honestly, the weirdest sort popped up in the casinos sometimes.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Okuma asked, pulling his gun out of the back of his pants and holding it where the cripple could see it. “I think this speaks for itself, but if you need a demonstration, all I need is this and the _back of your head_.”

“So,” the man breathed, speaking almost as if to himself. “You _would_ kill me then.”

Okuma snorted as his friend laughed. “Aren’t one for subtlety, are you? Fine then, if you want to be direct about it-”

But, then he stopped.

The words froze in his mouth.

Because the cripple had looked up.

And those dead purple eyes of his were _burning red_.

“Have it your way, then,” the cripple seemed to finish for him, but… but that _wasn’t that man’s voice, what_ -

And then the cripple’s head was glowing, and Okuma’s head was screaming, and _he_ was screaming, and his friend was screaming, and his eyes were bleeding out of his face-

And then it didn’t matter anymore.

Unseen by both of them, those reds bled purple again, and Yuugi watched as the two, hulking men collapsed at his feet, shaking with terror and pain…

And then all went still.

And Yuugi just… kept staring. Watching, as their lifeblood bled out of them.

As his own nose dripped blood… and tears welled in his eyes.

Tears that were not his own.

He did not cry anymore… had not for many deaths now.

He had sobbed, wept, shook, and vomited his thin lunch on the floor of some seedy bar that first time, when he led a drunk into the bathroom and the spirit intervened just as the creep tried to tear his shirt open.

He had hated it… hated leading that man into the stall, hated himself for doing it on purpose, hated the drunk for having so much darkness in his heart that he made himself such an obvious target, hated the demon for _making all of this necessary and killing Katsuya and taking Ryou_ -

But… not Yami. Never Yami.

He couldn’t hate Yami.

For Yuugi’s tears slowly ebbed with each new kill, each new sacrifice… But, just as his began to dry up completely, with maybe the twenty-sixth death, or the twenty-seventh?

The ‘effects’ began to show… Yuugi began to bleed.

His heart would skip a beat here or there, and his fingertips… as he walked away from the latest body, they would go numb in a strange way he could not understand.

Just as his heart began to go numb in ways he did not understand.

The first harbingers of the end…

And with their appearance, Yami’s tears began to flow in place of his.

Just as they did then, there in that alley.

Yuugi brushed a thumb through them, sighing. Called out his name… no, his _title_.

“Yami…”

Shadow.

And Yami shifted, moved out of his flesh to hover before him.

He could do that now, tied as he was to Yuugi’s flesh, and not his own.

But it wasn’t that glorious dead king that stood before him, or even Yuugi’s own reflection with the wrong eyes.

Yami was nothing more than a silhouette of black smoke against the shadows, the only mark differentiating him from Yuugi’s own shadow the golden glow of his eyes, and the third upon his brow.

He was barely solid like that, and he certainly could not cry outside of Yuugi’s skin… but Yuugi still reached out, and cupped his face. Ran his thumbs across cheeks that felt like nothing more than dried water.

 _Yuugi_ …

Yuugi shook his head, and smiled. For him… for his shadow.

It was the only reason he bothered anymore.

And he knew… just as he could see into Yami’s soul, feel the weight of duty and grim fate and stale regret and fresh agony pulsing through him? He knew Yami could see the mirroring sensations in Yuugi, the layers of dead grief and numb despair stifling his heart.

Every barrier between their souls had been ripped down the moment Yuugi accepted him into his mind… and there was no going back from that. No hiding their pain from one another… and how the other’s pain only heighten their own.

All they could do was soothe it where they could.

And Yami tried… he _tried_ , lifting shadowed hands to curl around Yuugi’s own as he whispered in his head.

_We’re getting close… I can feel it. I’m stronger than I have been in centuries. Just a little more, okay? And then we’ll be done._

And Yuugi nodded, smiled wider… didn’t speak of what they both knew.

That somewhere out there, the demon was getting stronger, too.

That even if they found him, he might not be wearing Ryou’s face anymore.

That, even if they stopped him… even if they sealed him away, alone, without Yami…

Even if the best possible outcome was reached…

Yuugi stepped forward, tilted Yami’s face up to his own.

Tasted smoke and salt and ash.

Yami jerked at the contact, but did not pull away.

He did not want to.

Yuugi was certain of that, or else he would have stopped kissing him long ago.

He just… Yami just, didn’t think he deserved it.

Just at Yuugi didn’t think _he_ deserved it.

But something in Yami’s heart always softened and went still at his touch.

So Yuugi didn’t stop.

But it was all he could offer, as Yami inevitably dispersed and seeped back into Yuugi’s skin the moment he gave into the impulse to move closer.

And Yuugi shut his eyes at the sensation… the feeling of Yami sliding back into place around his heart.

The feeling of Yami embracing him in a way that had nothing to do with arms or lips or flesh.

Another tear rolled down Yuugi’s face, and he wiped it away, unsure if it was his shadow’s or his own.

It didn’t matter… he just shook his head, and turned.

Limped away into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Closing Chapter Music: [Light a Fire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lR9aHm75vI) by Rachel Taylor


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